REDMOND An economic slowdown and a 50-percent drop in revenue in the past year means Huntair won’t be moving some of its manufacturing facilities to Redmond or anyplace else for the time being, its president said Friday.

The Washington County company, which manufactures ”clean room” technology for the high-tech industry, was to decide between a new location in Redmond or Camas, Wash., but has postponed its decision indefinitely. While disappointed, local advocates of the move are keeping in contact with Huntair and taking a ”wait-and-see approach” while the economy recovers.

Seven-year-old Huntair, with scattered locations in Tigard and Tualatin, builds ultra-sterile environments for producing computer semi-conductors. The 600-employee company was among the fastest-growing in the state, with its fortunes going up with the high-tech industry it served.

”Revenue has dropped off substantially,” said Huntair President David Benson. ”All of the sudden, the floor fell out of the economy. The orders quit coming.”

So the timing isn’t right for a move that would cost $3.5 million to relocate the company’s equipment, he said. The company will decide whether to relocate once the economy turns upward, Benson said.

The city of Redmond has offered Huntair a three-year waiver of property taxes, with an option to extend it to five years. The company would be built in the city’s ”enterprise zone” located in the Redmond Airport industrial area. About 150 of the company’s jobs would be relocated to the site.

But when Huntair asked for state grants from legislators to help pay for the $3.5 million in relocation costs, the lawmakers weren’t so gracious, Benson said.

”Bottom line, they had to pull that (offer) back,” he said. ”…The preservation and health of the company says we need to retreat for a period of time. It depends on what we see, day in and day out.”

The news isn’t all bad for local supporters of the move, who will maintain their relationship with Benson and other executives from Huntair, said Eric Sande, executive director of Redmond’s Chamber of Commerce.

Relocating and moving takes time, Sande said. But he believes that Huntair could still end up in Redmond.

”There are a lot of people who will say (Huntair) is never going to come,” Sande said. ”If I had that attitude back when I started working here, we never would have gotten this far.”